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Reba on the Big Number of 2014 Country Headlining Tours: "I Think It's Going to Be a Train Wreck

October 5, 2013

Reba is sounding the alarm on the country music touring business. The number of country artists headlining their own tours has grown significantly since Reba’s touring heyday in the 1990s, and she’s not so sure there will be enough fans able to buy tickets to see all of the country shows coming through their respective towns.

“I heard there is something like 27 headline country tours out for 2014,” Reba tells British Columbia’s Times Colonist. “How are they going to do that? I think it’s going to be a train wreck. Everybody is thinking they can go out and headline.”

Though she eventually became one of country’s top ticket sellers in the 1990s, Reba didn’t pack arenas from the beginning. She recalls her first headlining gig in the 1980s, where she sold just 800 tickets in Yuma, AZ. Tickets sales were so bad, Reba ended up paying the venue and promoter instead of making any money. That gamble was worth it, though.

Reba says, “It was about establishing my career. It was a lot of work, but you’ve got to start small, and grow, or you’ll remain a middle act.”

As for Reba’s headlining shows, she only has Canadian dates on the books for the rest of 2013. Go to Reba.com for a full list of tour dates.